WALNUT • The Granite Hills girls cross country team came in second in its Division 3 heat, while the boys took fifth to advance from the CIF-Southern Section Preliminaries on the Mt. San Antonio College rain course Saturday.

It's the third year in a row that both teams qualified to CIF-SS Finals, which take place Nov. 19.

"The thing that was impressive is that we don't normally run flat courses strong. Our strength is in hills," said Granite Hills coach Jim McManus. "I expect a stronger performance next week assuming we get into the hills."

Katie Deimling (17 minutes, 45 seconds) finished ninth to pace the girls, who had a gap between their top five runners of only 33 seconds. No. 2 runner Grace McManus (18:08) and fifth runner Morgan Lacey (18:18) were only separated by 10 seconds.

McManus said the plan wasn't to finish first, just run a good race to get into next week's finals when the Cougars will attempt to qualify to state for the second year in a row.

"I talked to the girls after the race, and they all said they had gas left in the tank," McManus said. "They ran a strong race, but still had an opportunity to do better."

The Granite Hills boys grabbed the fifth and final qualifying spot from their heat. Ismael Griego came in third in the heat, and his time of 14:41 was the sixth fastest in the division.

The team's gap of 1:17 is down considerably from the beginning of the year when it was close to 2 minutes, McManus said.

"This team with five new boys from last year making CIF Finals is a big accomplishment, really big," McManus said.

The rain course was shorted from 3.1 miles to 2.9 miles.

SultanaLast year when the CIF-SS Finals were moved from the regular course to the rain course, the Sultana girls struggled and came up a place shy of moving on to state.

When the course was changed Saturday for the CIF-SS Prelims, it was a different story.

Sisters Hannah Munyan (16:46) and Moriah Munyan (17:24) came in second and ninth respectively to help the Sultans finish fourth in their Division 2 heat and advance to Finals. Kaylee Upham (17:57) finished 21st.

"Because everybody ran well we moved on," Sultana coach Joshua Lange said. "They all showed up and we moved on."

The Sultana boys finished 12th as a team with Brandon Williams (15:51) taking 47th place. Sultana graduates just two seniors.

"We would like to give Serrano a run for their money (next year)," Lange said. "I'm happy with what happened, looking forward to next year."

Serrano Melissa Fairchild (16:40) finished second in the sixth-ranked Diamondbacks' Division 2 heat to advance to Finals, but her team finished in fifth place to miss qualifying by a spot.

Fairchild, a state placer last year as a freshman, finished 27 seconds behind race winner Paige Tennison of Newport Harbor.

It's just the second time since 2004 that Serrano hasn't qualified to Finals.

"Just a huge disappointment," Serrano coach Ken Quinn said. "I knew by the mile mark we were in trouble. Some unranked teams came through big time."

Kylee Betts came in eighth in the race and finished two spots and 3 seconds away from advancing with Fairchild.

The Serrano boys finished eighth as a team and didn't advance. Jimmy Kniss (15:18) and Ben Minick led the way, coming in 28th and 30th respectively.

Academy for Academic ExcellenceThe Academy for Academic Excellence boys finished fifth in their heat to qualify to CIF-SS Finals for the first time in school history.

Anthony Carrasco (16:19) and Kyle Rodriguez (16:30) led the Knights, who produced a 55-second gap between their first and fifth runners.

"I knew we were right there on the bubble, so I knew we had to put together a great race and the kids came through and did it," said AAE coach Jim Southwick.

Meanwhile, the AAE girls came in seventh in their heat, and missed advancing by two spots. Dena McFadden (20:47) paced the team in 25th place.

Hesperia ChristianNicole Jenkins qualified to the Division 5 finals for the third year in a row. Jenkins (19:22) finished fifth in her heat to move on.

The HCS boys came in eighth in their heat and did not advance. Tim Baum (16:28) was the Patriots' top finisher in 21st place.

Oak HillsThe Bulldogs placed three runners in the top 34 of their Div. 2 heat, but didn't advance as a team.